


The Sun Sets

by OveliaGirlHaditRight



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Canon, Canon Compliant, F/M, Gen, Sokai, That also fixed Riku and Kairi's relationship in KHIII, UA, Universe Alteration, Was originally a 'justice for Kairi' fic of mine, non-canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:35:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22122679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OveliaGirlHaditRight/pseuds/OveliaGirlHaditRight
Summary: Reupload of an old fic of mine. An alternate ending to KHIII, where Kairi is conscious when Xehanort summons her to kill her, and so gets to cleverly escape and be a part of the ending.Though this isn’t the “completely happy ending story” (I already wrote that fic), as Sora still disappears in the end (but not via death), because Joshua needs his help, etc. So it’s just a temporary goodbye between Sora and Kairi.Canon AU, Universe Alteration, Kind of Not Canon Compliant, but also is?
Relationships: Kairi & Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 2





	The Sun Sets

**Kairi’s PoV**

Kairi stood above a cliff—staring at her dear friends, as she did so—whilst Xehanort was about to kill her.

And she could already see the pain she’d cause Sora, and it was unbearable.

But as Xemnas had dislocated her shoulder—and she could barely even move for all the pain—there wasn’t much she could do.

Unless… she remembered what Naminé had told her Xehanort had done to win against Terra in the Keyblade Graveyard in the past.

He’d made him look, hadn’t he?

It was the oldest trick in the book, but maybe it would work for Kairi. Perhaps.

And as it stood, it was her only chance.

“Xehanort, look! The worlds are already returning to darkness, just like you want, since you’ve already cut me,” Kairi tried to trick the monster.

The Princess of Heart remembered what Master Yen Sid had said, about the world giving way to darkness if she or any of the other princesses fell.

So now Kairi was acting as though the blood loss he’d just given her was enough to kill her, and that the worlds were already acting accordingly.

“KAIRI!” the princess heard her prince exclaim her name.

And it hurt so much, that Kairi no longer regretted that she’d had to wait for him. And she would feel the pain from that a hundred times over, if Sora never had to endure this.

And there was something in his voice that seemed to indicate he had had to more than once.

But what she’d done had worked!

And when Kairi would look back on this moment many years later, she still wouldn’t believe it.

But now that this miracle had occurred for her, Kairi wasted no time in acting:

Her right side was gravely injured from all that Xemnas and Xehanort had done to her—and it didn’t help that Kairi thought the old “Master” had put some sort of sleep spell on her that had yet to take effect—so that left but one option:

So she jumped from the cliff ledge.

Kairi knew well that in her condition, the fall could kill her as easily as Xehanort wanted to.

But at least this way, she’d have a fighting choice.

And if nothing else, Sora and Riku wouldn’t have to see her be taken away from them by a mad man.

Feeling as though her legs had snapped—as Master Xehanort growled in rage, and Sora and Riku screamed her name—Kairi landed beside a piece of shrubbery. Something that already seemed to do wonders for her injuries: though maybe it was just in her head.

But what did do the trick for her, was that Donald and Goofy joined the fray at that exact moment.

Donald healed Kairi the moment he saw her—which she couldn’t have been more grateful for if she tried. Sora always joked that the duck never cured him, but the redhead thought she could’ve kissed him now—and Goofy threw a panacea her way, that rescued her from any of status effect she might have had.

But she barely had a chance to breathe, before Xehanort leapt down to where she was and banged his Keyblade against the one Kairi had just risen up.

Kairi sighed, noting the flower petals that had floated from Destiny’s Embrace at this clash—and tried to use a bit of her magic, to turn them into fire that would hurt him.

But she wasn’t the only one who had a sword in this mix:

No.

Sora, looking more murderous than Kairi had seen him before, had his Kingdom Key wedged between their two blades now.

“Get. Away. From. My. Kairi. Now, Xehanort!”

And as the Keyblade bearer said the words—he shot a summoning spell to his side with his free hand, and summoned Simba (or Kairi assumed, from all the stories Sora had told her about the lion).

Kairi marveled at this spectacle, despite herself—all while she tried to kick at Xehanort’s body with her feet, as she jumped into the air.

The jungle cat jumped this way and that, causing Xehanort to be caught in a field of flames.

And Riku was now behind the old geezer—preparing to perform Dark Aura at the back of his head, Kairi could tell.

And Mickey? He was trying to let his heart be his guiding key, and let it send away the hearts in Kingdom Hearts the way it had happened with Ansem’s encoder.

All was going well—and should have gone well—but when Kairi thought the battle might have been won, she noticed something.

The thirteenth Keyblade had still been forged: That had happened the moment that Xehanort had struck his Keyblade with hers. And Sora joining in had only made certain it would happen.

And now… Now Kairi was seeing a wolf in the place of Xehanort… and a towering city of white buildings?

And Simba, whatever the reason, had disappeared just like that.

“What the-” Kairi uttered, pointing her Keyblade at the town and preparing to try and do a Stop spell at it if need be: She had the feeling that this location was something that Xehanort wanted.

Donald and Goofy must have sensed it, too, for they came to Kairi’s side and put their hands on her shoulders for moral support.

And finally, Xehanort seemed to notice Kairi and the threat that she was.

He got in front of the blocky buildings, as if he wanted to go there. But he also drifted to the side away from them, as if he was trying to avoid them as if his life depended on it.

He was powering up a Dark Firaga to blast at her, Kairi saw.

But before he could, Kairi reached something other than Stop.

“Thunder!” the princess cried, remembering what Sora had said about meeting the King of the Gods, and how his lightning bolts had made Sora’s Thundaga look like sparks.

Kairi had no doubt that her pitiful magic that she’d only just learned was even worse than that, but if it protected her and maybe seemed to stop Xehanort… she would do it.

Kairi screamed, as she thought back on the electricity in her own life to give the Thunder mana some weight:

When Riku had shown her snowfall on the Island for the first time… Axel letting her try the zany taste that was sea salt ice cream… the way that Sora had just looked at her when she’d saved him.

And she imagined bad things, too: What it had been like to be cast out into the worlds, to lose her heart, and sit there waiting for her two friends.

“Ah-AHH!”

Kairi must have blacked out after this, because the next thing she would see would be a flash of black on the door she’d just witnessed that led to… “Scala Ad Caelum”? That’s what a voice in the back of her head seemed to be whispering now.

And Xehanort was… gone. Xehanort had been raising her chin up via her hair, so he could stab her throat.

And yet, he was no longer around Kairi. And she was instead lying on her back, looking up at Sora, Riku, Donald, Goofy, King Mickey, and even Axel, Aqua, Ventus, Roxas, and that girl Xion.

“Wh-what happened?” Kairi asked—feeling as though she hadn’t had a drink in days, as Sora sat her up (almost into his arms), and Riku patted her back some.

“Gosh, Kairi. I don’t know,” the king admitted—awkwardly kicking one shoe this way and that, as he tried to make sense of the impossible situation. “I talked to Riku and the others, and we’d planned ta try an’ trap Xehanort in Scala Ad Caelum: The place that we all saw for a second there… But we didn’t even summon it. It just appeared… I don’t get it. But now Xehanort’s there, and-”

“And he’s happy about it… at least partly,” Kairi guessed, remembering a certain look she’d seen in his eyes before everything had turned to nothing.

And Sora must have known it, too, if the way he groaned beside Kairi and leaned into her some—as if to agree—meant anything.

Funny, how attune they were to each other now… But maybe sharing a paopu fruit would do that to you.

“Whatever you guys thought,” Sora spoke up then, sounding so pained then that Kairi thought she might die for it.

Gosh, who had done this to her baby and how could she kill them for it?

And was it her… or did it sound like her lazy bum was going to sacrifice himself here? If he was planning on i-

“Sora!” Both Kairi and Riku said at the same exact time. And if the way Donald and Goofy’s mouths were opening now was any indication, they’d been about to speak up themselves.

“It isn’t going to work! It’s a good starting point, probably, and I’ll go face him there… But you need to come up with… something else.”

Sora was right.

Kairi was well aware that he was.

And so was everyone else, with every fiber of their being. But whatever the real solution was, she didn’t know.

And precious time was ticking away.

The sky itself was beginning to turn the ghastly green of the X-Blade she’d seen in Xehanort’s hands.

“What should we-”

But Riku cut Kairi off, smirking, as he seemed to share some sort of inside joke with Sora. “Something like ‘consume the darkness, return it to light’? I think I may have an idea. But I’ll need Terra’s help with it.

"Sora, you go and hold Xehanort off from doing whatever he wants to with Kingdom Hearts. We’ve got the rest covered.”

Kairi felt awful leaving Sora to do this alone—it reminded her of Traverse Town all over again, and she’d done everything she could think of to keep that from happening once more—but what could she do?

Apparently her group going to try and free someone named “Eraqus” from Terra, so he could reach his out to his old friend.

And Kairi’s companions thought they’d need the light of a Princess of Heart to help find that other spark within Terra.

So Kairi ended up aiding in this as much as she could…

Even though she felt like Ven and Aqua were still doing most of the work here: Those who actually knew Eraqus and could soothe Terra during this difficult encounter.

But all the same… Kairi did think she nearly died from this once, twice, maybe three times.

Ven and Aqua were fading fast: Those without hearts of pure light weren’t meant to do this kind of work. And Ventus’ heart was only artificially that way…

So to keep them from disappearing, Kairi was giving them some of her light… but it was draining her a dangerous level to do so.

And if it hadn’t been for King Mickey healing her, Kairi didn’t know what she would have done.

“I… I got it,” Terra asserted at last—as he woke up peacefully, and Ven and Aqua snapped awake beside him.

At this, Kairi got up groggily—but with a smile on her face, all the same—and allowed Mickey to help her to her feet.

And it was a good thing she got back to Scala Ad Caelum’s door when she did, because Roxas and Xion were chomping at the bit in trying to get to Sora to help. And in the end, it was only Lea that kept them from getting themselves killed.

“Do you guys wanna die?” the pyromaniac demanded: his hands on his hips, as he shook his head somewhere between a dad and an older brother. “I can hear what they’re all screamin’ in there: Xehanort just turned Sora into his anti-form. And if he can do that to Lighty McLight Boy, what can he do to you guys? When you have no darkness in your hearts from all you went through? We still have to play it by ear.”

“Yeah!” Kairi agreed, playfully swatting Roxas on the back of the head once—the way she might have Sora—and putting an arm around Xion, as she leaned into her to let her know how much this… sister of hers was going to mean to her. “None of you are falling to darkness on our watch. Right, Axel?”

But just as Kairi said that, Mickey was pointing to Scala Ad Caelum and signaling that they should go in now.

Of course: Just after she and Axel had said “no”.

Sometimes, Kairi really thought her entire life was a series of simple-minded stunts that always turned against her.

But there was no time for that now…

No: Kairi needed to climb atop Riku’s back—like he was motioning her to do now—and let him take her to Scala Ad Caelum.

The place had turned topsy-turvy like Wonderland, Kairi could already see.

And since she hadn’t learned glide like Sora and a few of the others had, she knew she’d have no way of traversing the floating homes unless she let Riku use Flowmotion with her.

And she did.

On one hand, what she and Riku were now doing was beautiful—just barely seeing the blue lights they caused this way, and floating in the air the way dandelion seeds might in the wind.

But it was also a punch in the gut, and made Kairi want to double over in pain the way that going through Corridors of Darkness had. But she pushed on for Riku, all the same.

And it was just as Riku had latched onto a flagpole to pull them both to the platform jus above them, that Kairi had a sense of dread.

…She could feel Sora, in more pain then he had ever been in his life, and he was also positively exhausted.

It was enough to make her want to retch, and for tears to sting at her eyes.

And Riku must have felt her stressing above him, because he just questioned: “Kairi?”

And she wanted to reassure him. She did: Because Riku was her best friend, and she wanted him to know—as they both fretted over Sora—that he’d at least always have her if something happened, but she decided to act before sparing any words.

From this vantage point, Kairi could see Sora was on his last legs—Donald and Goofy, too—and Xehanort was aiming at him with the X-Blade.

And Kairi jumped their way before she even knew what she was doing.

But she tugged on Riku’s hand first, to let him know he should follow her… but after that, Kairi was kicking the X-Blade out of Xehanort’s hands—cutting her legs on the weapon to do so—and sending it flying into Sora’s hand.

“It- it’s over, Xehanort”, Kairi promised then, when she’d found her voice again:

It just seemed like something Sora would say. And since he wasn’t filling the void right now—though he was giving her a sort of appraising look—she thought she had to.

“Sor-”

But he didn’t seem to see Kairi at all.

Instead, Sora had the X-Blade pointed at a fearful looking Master Xehanort, and was looking at the older man with the utmost disgust.

“You made me lose, Kairi… And you’ve done so much other harm, that I should kill you right now.”

And this attitude of Sora’s took Kairi aback, because she’d always thought that Sora showed his enemies mercy—even when they behaved in such a way.

Despite everything, Xehanort hadn’t really hurt her today. And Kairi was even about to tell Sora as much…

But the way Sora was acting now… it was like Xehanort had hurt him more than anything or anyone else ever could, and that’s why he’d lost it.

And if the way Sora was holding the X-Blade now was any indication—in the kind of back-handed way that Ven did—it was true. (1)

Ventus had been a part of Sora… so him now holding the X-Blade like this said everything.

But the fact he was carrying it like Ven, also related that it was really him who had a bone to pick with Master Xehanort.

“Sora,” Kairi began, taking in his now odd white outfit.

But just as Kairi voiced his name, the X-Blade came toppling out of Sora’s hands and shattered into a million pieces.

And it was after that had happened that Riku found them.

He wasted no time asking what was going on when he came their way—something Kairi would always appreciate—and instead put himself between them and Master Xehanort.

In a lot of ways, it reminded Kairi of when he’d shielded them before Ansem the Wise had died…

“Xehanort, you’re not gonna hurt my friends now, just because they destroyed the X-Blade. You’re just not.”

And Kairi knew that Xehanort had been about to attempt exactly that.

The way that he had his eyes on Sora now, rather than her, had Kairi afraid in a way she never had been before. She just couldn’t put her finger on why…

Before Kairi could stop herself, she took both of Sora and Riku’s hands into her own:

The best thing she’d ever seen her friends do was team attacks, after all.

And though Kairi wasn’t sure if she was skilled enough to do that with her boys just yet, she knew she had to try.

The Light tried to draw out the spark of life that existed in all three of them.

And as she felt her heart beating at a faster and faster rhythm, Kairi thought she was probably succeeding, and about to do her own version of Dark Impulse, but a Light one. She’d call it “Holy”.

“No!” Kairi heard Aqua warn her, the second she’d begun working at this.

And when Kairi would look back at on it all later, she would assume it was because Terra and Eraqus had showed up on the scene now and Eraqus could have spoken to his old friend.

But it was too late.

Kairi magic struck Eraqus’ temple just when he’d approached, and something else transpired because of it… Something none of them ever could have counted on.

A woman a bit older than Aqua—probably about Queen Minnie’s age, Kairi would guess—ended taking up the entire area as a massive ghost.

She had long, brunette hair… A white tank top, and a brown skirt.

And Eraqus was bowing to her at once, and Terra followed suit because of it—unable to stop himself, Kairi could see.

“Master Hakanaidesu!”

Mickey also looked at this woman wide-eyed, in clearly knowing who she was.

And Kairi was about to ask the king the obvious question, the way she was sure Sora and Riku had bombarded him with query time and time again… but she refrained from it, when she noted that Master Xehanort was looking as though he was seeing the gods for the first time.

Flying over to him, and taking his face between her hands, Hakanaidesu was much gentler with Xehanort than Kairi would have been if he had murdered her the way, Kairi was about to here Xehanort had his old Master.

“Xehanort, you killed me… Despite everything. And I can almost even understand why you would, even aside from the obvious… But you’ve lost. The X-Blade has shattered. What else would you do to forge it?

"Come with Eraqus and me where second chances are given: in the one thing you’ve always wanted. Kingdom Hearts.”

And if Hakanaidesu hadn’t said the last bit about Kingdom Hearts, Kairi didn’t think Xehanort ever would have gone.

But at his closing, he seemed to decide he’d seen enough of this world, and that death was the next great frontier:

For he slapped an arm around his brother Eraqus’ shoulder—as Eraqus smiled, and shed one single tear—and then they both took their Master’s hands the way pupils should. Eraqus looked more thankful than anything, and then they were both gone.

Kairi completely missed their movement to the Beyond.

But she thought this was probably for the best, since those alive weren’t meant to see what death looked like… Not yet, anyway.

Everyone was jumping and cheering now—much like they had when they’d defeated Xemnas that last time—as they’d won.

And the multi-verse was going to be okay: They hadn’t allowed Xehanort to reset the world like he’d wanted to.

Kairi turned to Sora with a grin on her face—wanting to share this section of her life with him most of all—she was preparing to kiss him on the cheek, because she had been waiting for the right moment to do so, but…

But Sora didn’t allow it, surprising Kairi.

And if she really had to stop and think about it, she would have said he seemed a bit… off.

Before Kairi had been able to catch Sora’s cheek with her lips, Sora caught her in his arms—halting her action—and allowing them to share the most intimate hug they ever had, since they both meant to hold onto each other this time.

Every other time they had hugged, it had been of necessity: Sora catching her as she’d lost her heart and to keep her from falling at the Castle That Never Was… her protecting Heartless him from the other Shadows, and then Sora saving her from Terra-Xehanort recently.

The only other time had been when Kairi had wanted him so badly in the Castle That Never Was—and hadn’t been able to fight against embracing him there—but Sora had acted somewhat awkwardly then. And Kairi couldn’t blame him for it, since they hadn’t said how they’d felt at that point.

“Kairi… I’ll make sure we don’t end up like Xehanort and Hakanaidesu. Or anywhere close to it. I swear. We’re going to be healthy together—and safe with one another—and even if there are some hiccups along the way… We’ll find each other in the end. I swear.”

So Sora had noticed it, too… That there had been some sort of inappropriate relationship between Xehanort and his Master that she had cited, and that it was—perhaps—one of the reasons he’d fallen…

Twisting her finger in Sora’s for a pinky promise—that felt so natural to her, that Kairi could almost sing for the comfort of it—she gave her lazy bum her thoughts on it all: “Of course I know that, silly. We’re always going to fine… And you’ll always be good to me. Why would you even think differently for a second?

"But enough about 'us’ for the moment, Sora. I don’t want to alienate everyone. So what do you say we invite everyone home, and give them the beach party they’ve always wanted?”

There was something in Sora’s eyes then:

It seemed to her, like someone who looked and looked for an optical illusion… only to eventually see it, and realize it had been there all along.

“Yeah. Let’s go,” Sora said, grinning bigger than Kairi had ever seen him do before. But there was some form of tightness in his eyes, as well.

And Kairi’s prince held her hand in his—racing with her out of Scala Ad Caelum, and from the Keyblade Graveyard to the gummi ship.

Unlike when they had headed out to the gummi ship when Hollow Bastion had been overrun by Heartless, Sora didn’t let go of Kairi at all.

And she took whatever solace she could find in that.

…

Sora and Kairi sat together on the gummi ship trip home, after they’d revived Naminé and had gotten Hayner, Pence, and Olette—and Sora wouldn’t leave Kairi’s side for an instant, and was actually allowing Donald to fly—and while Sora seemed against letting Kairi’s lips touch him for whatever reason, he was gently kissing her cheek and neck whenever the others weren’t looking.

Kairi was glad for the attention—she was finally ready for this kind of thing—but she didn’t know what to make of it:

So she’d lean into it here and there, but more than anything she was working on a sodoku puzzle.

Every now and then, Sora would pipe up and tell Kairi where she had put a wrong number. And Kairi couldn’t help noting just how much smarter he’d gotten.

“I’m impressed with you, Sora,” Kairi announced after the fifth time this happened, knowing that after everything they’d been through—and how she’d teased him in the past—he deserved the compliment. “You really aren’t my lazy bum anymore. Not that you have been for a while… But thank you for growing, and somehow making your heart even better than it had been before.”

Kairi blushed at the end of her declaration, since this level of honesty with Sora was still new to her. But she tried to keep her eyes locked on his all the same, so that he knew she really meant it.

It was at this point that they reached the Islands.

And Sora—who had been content to let Donald pilot until now—charged into the cockpit, and began steering the ship even faster to their home.

…He missed crashing into the sea completely, only by a hare’s breadth.

And Sora landed the ship on the water… Which probably wasn’t a good thing, since there was no such thing as a “water landing”. That was just code for “accident”.

Now, most everyone was going to have to go out the door and into the water—which wouldn’t be pleasant for many’s outfits, but it seemed that Sora wasn’t going to give Kairi that kind of fate.

Instead, he led Kairi to the hatch on the top of the bird and let them platform down onto the sand.

And Kairi thought it said a lot about her training that she wasn’t even winded after it.

She was about to celebrate with Olette that she was now part of the romantic story—as the other girl began building a sand castle beside her—but Kairi realized that she wanted to take Sora somewhere, the way he just had her:

She needed to gleefully run around like they were on their honeymoon, too

So to the paopu tree it was—the place that their destinies had become intertwined, that Kairi needed to thank for seeing them to safety.

At first, Sora seemed hesitant to go there.

But when Kairi cheekily asked him if he was afraid to fall off the tree and into the water, like he had when they were kids, he balked up.

For a while, everything was perfect.

Sora and Kairi held hands as they watched their friends goof off, and she leaned her head against Sora’s like she had wanted to at Kingdom Hearts all those years ago. (2)

The princess even finally kissed his cheek some. And Sora allowed it… but he seemed somewhat pained for it.

And it was only after he’d made sure their fingers were completely laced that Sora told her his piece.

“The truth, Kairi? …Where do I even begin? I don’t even want to admit it… But I lived through this Keyblade War before… And I recently time traveled back there—back here—so I could change things.

"…That bastard murdered you the first and second time… But this one, I finally stopped it from happening. And Kairi, I’m so so glad for it…

"But now, now I have to go to the places I went after the- after the first time. I promised Joshua that I would, because I need to go there in each timeline that I make it to this point. Because- well, just because… But you can’t go, since you couldn’t before… So I’ll be seeing you later, Kairi, but it’s not goodbye. It’s never goodbye.”

And after this word vomit of Sora’s, that she let him fully get out before she let herself react—or to think to ask questions—Kairi couldn’t help but to sob.

This all explained a lot of Sora’s past behavior, didn’t it?

They saw Scala Ad Caelum before it had truly appeared, because they had subconscious memories of the last timeline.

And Sora’s reaction to Xehanort about her… was because Xehanort had killed her before… And that death of hers was why Sora was unwilling to let her go, and seeming to want to spend all the time together that they could…

And Sora wanted to touch her because he’d lost that chance forever before… but he didn’t want Kairi to touch him back, because he didn’t want that until things were finally right between them again.

He also must have wanted to stay away from the paopu tree… Because something bad had happened here before, huh?

“…Then I failed you. Didn’t I, Sora? I didn’t help in the fight at all! But was really just a hindrance. Like you’d always feared?”

And Sora seemed so flabbergasted by this statement of hers, that he almost even let her kiss him—Kairi could tell—because he couldn’t move.

Which was good. Kairi now needed to kiss every inch of his skin that she could find, to gain some form of comfort.

But when Kairi’s lips had gone to his hand, Sora raised her head up so their foreheads were leaning against each other and he could reassure her. “No, Kairi. You were brilliant. You always have been… But in turning the clock, I can see that even moreso now…

"I’ve just gotta go be someone else’s champion for the moment. But we’ll be together again soon. Maybe they’ll choose you to be their champion too, I mean.”

Kairi doubted that, given how badly she must have done with her first attempt at the War. But maybe with what she had done now, someone would see something within her.

And if it was all Kairi could hope for now, it was how she would hope.

She bit down the need to scream at everyone for some help here, and gave Sora his temporary goodbye that he needed for now.

“… So I’ll see you when the sun rises again, Sora.” And if Kairi placed a hickey under the chain of the crown necklace she’d given to him, so he’d always know he had to return home to his princess, she thought it was only fitting.

“See you then, Kairi. And forever after that.”

And Kairi saw a brighter light than she ever had in her life, as Sora seemed to change form—into a god, almost?—and disappeared in an icy blue beam.

**Author's Note:**

> (1) Sora’s about to kill Xehanort for murdering Kairi. But he knows it isn’t right, or him, so he sort of latches onto his connection with Ven to remember other people have a vendetta against Xehanort, too. And that if they aren’t going to go that far with him, neither will he.
> 
> (2) Reference to the KHIFM box art.
> 
> The stuff with Master Hakanaidesu is a little bit inspired by Phoenix-Downer giving Xehanort and Eraqus a female Master in her story “Those Who Dreamed”, and having Xehanort kill her. But really, I just didn’t want to completely copy the scene with Xehanort and Eraqus the game gave us (and in my opinion, it shouldn’t have been exactly the same since Sora had now changed things). So I had to come up with something close, but not exactly he same. And this whole story was what I thought of.
> 
> I was also being vindictive, and not letting Xehanort be redeemed by (mostly) good Eraqus, but someone who’d been a bit crappy herself. Yep.
> 
> Also, IIRC, Hakanaidesu means “fleeting” in Japanese. And I chose that because her existence was fleeting, and she had a fleeting affair with Xehanort, etc.
> 
> And in case it isn’t clear, the canon ending didn’t work in this story for whatever reason. Kairi became Sora’s Entry Fee and he lost the Game and lost her, or something, so he had to find another way to save her. Time travel it was (with him possessing himself that was at the War)! And he fails at his first attempt, but succeeds in what we see here.
> 
> And Xehanort somehow knows that Sora leads to his downfall, so that’s why he’s afraid of him and Scala Ad Caelum at times and also starts gunning for him here.
> 
> After all is said and done, Sora basically has to go join “Dissidia”, I’m calling it (because TWEWY, Verum Rex, and whatever with the Master of Masters)—or the episode of Teen Titans where they summon all the champions—for KHIV and DOESN’T die here.
> 
> I did sort of want to do more with Sora and Kairi’s friends (and I probably will in future stories), but there wasn’t just enough time in this one. Though I am glad I got to give the Destiny Trio their dues, that the game didn’t.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading.
> 
> -Shanna!


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